A Stranger in a Familiar Land
by Curator of the Sands
Summary: Somewhere in their darkest night, humanity made up the story of a man who will never let them down. The Holts have more in common with him than anyone ever expected. (Altean!Pidge Au)
1. Green is the Colour of the Heart

A Stranger In A Familiar Land

Chapter One

Green is the Colour of the Heart

* * *

"Keep looking, dammit. No matter what... keep looking. Like the moment as a child when you first grasp the concept of death. You let yourself really think about non-existence... and its total inevitability... and it's absolutely terrifying. So you let your mind slide around it, and you eat a sandwich, and it's okay. But not today. Today I'm staring that final horror in the eye. I'm looking right into that empty hole. The void. The End."

– Superman, _Action Comics #39_

oOo

It was supposed to be a joke, an inside little bit of irony that only their family could understand. That small Superman keychain bought at a comic shop. There was nothing more than the famous shield and a couple of red, yellow, and blue beads that jingled when she walked, but the imagery, the thought of it; _that_ was what mattered the most.

Kal El, the Kryptonian that fell out of the sky and was adopted by earth. An alien hiding among humans. It didn't matter that he wasn't real. What mattered was that he cared about everyone in the world, without exception, without _judgment_. So different and yet so alike; there was no one more human and more alien than Clark Kent.

Katie laughed with her brother, their own secret something that sparked them not only getting the keychain but a couple of graphic novels as well, reading them beneath their covers when the sun had long vanished over the horizon, whispering about what it would be like to fly, to be faster than sound, to jump a building in a single bound.

Before Kerberos, Katie bought Matt a matching keychain and engraved both with her father's tools using calligraphy stencils bought from the closest hobby store.

 _You're much stronger than you think you are_ , she had written. _Trust me._

oOo

They were pods. Cryo pods just like the ones that were on the original ship that had first brought Pidge and her family to earth. She remembered the way that the cold air brushed across her skin when she played with the settings, the way that the metal always felt a bit textured when she ran her hands over the sides.

That same cold air brushed against her face, fluttering her bangs and kissing the makeup that covered her cheeks. It had gone from the powder she had used that morning to something that felt almost clay-like. The trials of being baked alive in the desert, she supposed where swat mixed with everything. A cleaning smell, the kind that could be found in hospitals, almost made Pidge sneeze.

But the woman falling out of the pod surprised her just as much as everyone. A scream of "Father!" echoing across the smooth expanse of the metal walls, filling the silence that had settled upon the group when the egg-like shapes had first rose from the floor. She fell, her hand outstretched and reaching for someone that wasn't there anymore and Lance, the only one close enough, jerked forward to catch her.

Pidge stared, eyes wide as she took in the dark features, the bright blue eyes.

The pointed ears.

Hand trembling, she reached up to touch her own cheek, fingers brushing the space between her cheekbone and eye, tracing a mark hidden from view.

A mark mirrored on the woman currently pinning Lance to the ground. The only difference was the striking rose pink that stood out clearly on her dark skin while Pidge's was a certain olive green that was more like the fading of summer than the beginning of spring. She gripped the flaps of the aviator hat keeping her own ears from view and pulled them down, tighter against her head.

But she couldn't stop staring.

"We don't know what you're talking about," Shiro said from her right and Pidge was dragged back into the conversations happening around her. "Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."

Pidge's nails dug into the leather of the hat and stared up from under her bangs, holding her breath.

The woman straightened slightly, her eyes bright and yet hardened like light coming through stained glass. "I am Princess Allura," she said, "of Planet Altea."

 _Altea_. The name rung like a bell and shattered all thoughts of anything else. _Planet Altea. Princess Allura._ Pidge remembered her father speak of King Alfor, of Voltron, of the great cities that looked over wide meadows filled with wildflowers. A planet she couldn't remember, a home that was distant and so very far away.

Gone, now.

"—Where we are. And how long we've been asleep."

Pidge moved automatically out of her way as she stepped up to the control consol. There was a faint roaring in her ears that drowned out the sound of everything and everyone else. She tilted her head back and watched Allura's face, tracing the line of her jaw, the curve of her eyes.

Her heart knocked impatiently against her ribcage, reminding her to breathe, and Pidge inhaled sharply. "You—" she started and swallowed roughly, something thick and painful clogging up her throat. The back of her eyes stung and felt almost unbearably hot and itchy all at once.

The look Allura gave her was carefully guarded.

"Pidge?" Hunk sounded confused.

She couldn't blame him. She was confused too. Her nails dug further into the fabric of the hat and her arms were full on shaking. "Your _ears_ ," Pidge managed finally and let go of one flap, letting the heavy material finally be pulled off her head. The aviator hat hung limply in her hands as she stared up at Allura, watched as the Princess' blue eyes grew wide, as her mouth opened in a soft gasp. "You're l-like _me_!"

And then the sobs came. Great, body wracking sobs that rose up from her stomach and made her ribs ache and her lungs heave. Pidge wiped at the tears that streamed down her cheeks, pushing her glasses up in order to stubbornly clear them away. She tried to use the leather of the hat to soak them up until it was gently pried from her fingers and new hands cupped her cheeks.

Pidge hiccupped and sniffed, shoulders trembling as she stared up at Allura.

The princess wiped her thumb along the makeup covering green marks, using the tears in order to expose them to the eyes of others for the first time in months. "Oh," she murmured softly and lowered herself to one knee, "oh, little one," Allura pulled back only to open her arms. "Come here."

Flinging herself forward, Pidge wrapped her arms around the Princess and buried her face into the soft fabric of the dress. Allura hummed against her hair and ran her hands down the thin, jerking back, rubbing comforting circles along Pidge's spine as she sobbed against the older Altean.

oOo

It was back before the Kerberos mission, a few months after the Garrison had taken her family into their custody that Katie and Matt snuck out of the barracks they had been given, donned makeup and a pair of thick hats to cover their ears, then made the three mile trek to the nearest movie theatre to watch whatever new direction Hollywood had decided to throw Clark Kent this time.

Neither had expected what they saw.

 _"So I'm alone."_

 _"No. You are as much a child of Earth now as you are of Krypton. You can embody the best of both worlds."_

They watched him fall and fly, be alien and, yet, be so incredibly _human_. Katie gripped her brother's hand and he gripped hers, their fingers digging into each other but neither caring.

 _"People of earth are different from us, it's true. But, ultimately, I believe that's a good thing. They won't necessarily make the same mistakes we did."_

Katie leaned into her brother, their shoulders pressing together as the humans in the theatre were enthralled by the man who's deep voice rumbled through the room. Altea, the war with Galra, the ten thousand years that had passed between then and now. It was a mark on the universe's history, a blemish like every war, every battle that had come before it. Earth had those same blemishes, those same dark scars.

 _"Embodied within that hope is the very fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good."_

The Alteans on earth couldn't fly, couldn't shoot lasers from their eyes, but they understood the loneliness of being the last, of being on a planet that wasn't their birthplace, but still their home.

So when Kal El killed one of the last of his people, dropping the number even lower, Katie and Matt forgot that they were watching a movie and ducked their heads in respect, in _understanding_. Neither of them wanted to think about what they would have to do in that situation, what they would feel, how they would react, in having to kill another one of their people after years of feeling alone.

When they got back to the Garrison that evening, Katie and Matt Holt crawled underneath the covers of their beds, turned on their flashlights, and read the old comics over and over again until they fell asleep.

oOo

The sobbing died down to hiccups, to shudders, and, finally, sniffles. Pidge clutched Allura's dress and breathed in as deeply as she could even if the sound was harried and ragged. She wiped at her nose and eyes with a sleeve, grimacing when smears of powder came away and streaked across the fabric. "Sorry," she murmured, turning away so she wouldn't have to see if she had made a mess of the Princess' clothing.

"It's quite alright," Allura said, quiet amusement colouring her tone and Pidge huffed when a hand ran through her hair, fluffing up her bangs.

When she finally got the courage to look up, the older Altean was smiling down at her, expression soft and eyes warm. Shakily, Pidge used her fingers to wipe away the remnants of her tears and carefully kept herself from looking at the humans standing not too far away. Hunk and Lance had been her teammates for quite a few months and being an alien had been only one of the many secrets she had kept from them.

She winced.

"Well," Allura turned to the control panel and Pidge followed, her hip brushing against the flair of the white skirt, "I have to say that this was a surprise."

"But quite a pleasant one!" The red haired man said, grinning as he leaned over and ruffled Pidge's hair. "Did you live on one of the colony planets?"

His hope was evident in both of them and Pidge regretfully shook her head. "No," she said softly, "we escaped from Altea before the Galra arrived."

"You were part of the envoy ships then," Allura frowned. "We thought they had all been destroyed during the ambush between the Double Star asteroid belt."

 _Flashing red. The ground shuddering beneath her. A belt that cut into her skin when the ship lurched. Crying. Shouting. Crunching metal and arms wrapping around her body._

"I don't know," Pidge rubbed at her arms and ducked her head, "I don't know how we survived." It had been something her father had been tight lipped about, promising to tell her and Matt when they were older. Except now she was older and she still didn't understand it, still didn't know what had happened.

There was less answers and more questions, some only her father could answer if— _when_ —he was found.

Muffled squeaking came from one of the pods and Allura turned with a slight frown, heading towards the one she had woken up in. "Today _is_ a good day," the princess said with a soft smile, looking down at the four mice that were currently racing across the metal, "And looks like we're not all alone after all."

A heavy hand rested on Pidge's shoulder and she fought the urge to jump, looking up at the owner out of the corner of her eye. It was Hunk and his grip tightened for a second before releasing, a small smile on his face. Tension bled out of her and she leaned into the engineer's hold, closing her eyes with a sigh of relief.

"You could have told us," his voice was soft so that the others wouldn't quite be able to pick up on it. "Lance and I wouldn't have told anyone."

What could she say to that? That she had been scared of getting caught? That the Garrison was the closest way to find out what had happened to her brother and father so she kept a careful tie on everything? That Lance and Hunk finding out might mean that she would get them in trouble as well?

Or was it just fear of a lack of acceptance, of the side-eyed looks the officers had given her family once the Garrison had taken them in, the awkward silences, the _distrust_. She was an alien. Her family hadn't been born on Earth even if they had been raised there. Perhaps that was the problem.

Pidge sighed and smiled apologetically up at the taller cadet. "I know," she said softly, "I'm sorry, it's just—"

 _"You don't care because they're different!"_

She rubbed at her arm and ducked her head slightly.

"No, no," Hunk raised his hands up, "it's okay, I get it!" He didn't, not really, not to the fullest extent, but he could, one day. Some day.

She returned his smile.

oOo

Pidge Gunderson. She wrote it in her notebooks over and over again, carefully wiping Katie Holt out of her muscle memory no matter how much it stung. Just think of it as another identity, another persona.

Matt's old glass lenses were carefully replaced by non-corrective lenses, suitcase packed with his old clothing. She cut her hair but was unable to keep it from curling up at the ends making some sort of mockery of her brother. That was okay, though; it was something to remember him by.

"Are you sure?" Her mother asked her, carefully brushing the powder across Katie's cheeks. It was an old tradition from when she and Matt were younger and their parents had to help them disguise themselves because the chameleon abilities that naturally came with their species didn't quite kick in until they were adults. "If you get caught—"

"I just want answers," Katie pulled the aviator hat over her head and checked the mirror to make sure her ears were concealed. Everything that made her different was hidden away and she looked human.

That didn't mean she felt like it.

"Matt and dad are out there, I know it."

Her mother sighed softly and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I know," she said.

So Pidge Gunderson walked into the Garrison with only a pair of glasses and an aviator hat to keep her identity safe from the officials. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be, answering to a new name, adopting a new identity.

Superman did not become Superman because of murder in an alley or a freak accident involving lightning or toxic materials; he was born into the role. His alter ego is Clark Kent. The outfit with the big red S is the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him; those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses the business suit, that's the costume.

That's what Superman wears to blend in with the people of earth.

She just had to think _human_. Think like _Clark Kent_.

Katie adjusted her glasses and walked towards the two boys talking in front of the team assignments.

"Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?"

"Right here."

oOo

"We don't have much time," Shiro was saying and Pidge was torn out of her thoughts on Voltron and the Lions. "Pidge and I will go get the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk to get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it."

Allura was watching Shiro, but she nodded sharply once and spoke, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "In the meantime," she said, "I'll get this castle's defences ready. They'll be sorely needed."

Turning away from the Princess, Coran gave them all a once over before his gaze landed on Pidge. A small smile spread across his face and she ducked her head away, reaching up for the aviator hat that was no longer there. "I'll ready a pod and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion," he told Shiro, "but first..."

He grabbed the lump of leather and fur, offering it to Pidge and she snatched it up, pulling it over her head and letting out a sigh of relief as the familiar weight settled upon her brow. She was about to follow him and Shiro to one of the pods when an arm circled her shoulder.

"Pidge!" Lance stood over her, his eyes comically wide. "You're an _alien_!"

Behind him, Allura bristled slightly, her blue eyes narrowed and watched the teenager like a tigress observing a zookeeper with a cub.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm sorry I didn't tell you—"

"That's so _cool_! Can you fly? Can you pick up a car? Can you pick up _me_?"

She blinked rapidly for a second before shaking her head. "Uh, well, no I can't fly," Not for the lack of trying, though, "I don't know and, um, _maybe_?"

Lance looked like he was about to fling himself on top of her in order to test it before a hand grabbed the collar of his jacket and Hunk smiled the same kind of smile mothers used when their children were being an embarrassment in the grocery store. "Sorry," he told them both, though the word had a different meaning for the two of them, "Lance, we better get going."

"Oh," the pilot said, sounding disappointed, "yeah, guess you're right," he turned and nudged Pidge with his hip. "Seriously though," Lance winked at her, "it's totally cool."

Her smile was a tiny bit shy as she looked up at him. "Thank you," Pidge murmured and then scurried off to catch up with Shiro and Coran. She ducked between the two of them, fiddling with her shirt sleeves as they walked to the hanger. Lights that hadn't been on for over ten thousand years flickered to life and she watched them burn with that strange, blue-white light that covered the rest of the castle.

The pods themselves were strange and almost insect shaped, more round and lumpy than the cylinders of airplanes back on Earth. They were also white with a black bit of metal that fell away like it wasn't there at all for a cover to the two seats and controls. Shiro didn't seem all that surprised, but the guy had also, probably, been to the edge of the galaxy and back so Pidge didn't really take his lack of concern into account.

The ship he had crash landed back on Earth with must have been a bit weird anyway coming from a civilization that had existed for over ten thousand years. Maybe the pod and it were similar in make? It would explain a bit.

And then they were in the sky, heading out to space for the second time that day, and Pidge watched the Blue Lion turn towards a wormhole as she and Shiro entered another, took a deep breath as the pod lurched forward, and exhaled when they were out the other side.

"You're the other Altean," Shiro said after a moment when they were flying through nothing to get to a large, mostly green planet. "Commander Holt's daughter, right?"

She turned away slightly, rested her shoulder on the arm rest, and put her chin on her palm. The stars were interesting on this side of the universe—none of the constellations fully matched up and navigation would be a nightmare.

"I'm sorry," the pilot continued softly, "I'm sorry that I couldn't bring them back with me."

"It's not your fault," Pidge murmured and heard the sound of hands tightening on the controls. So she turned and saw Shiro's gritted teeth, the furrow of his brow. "It's not," she told him with more conviction.

His grey eyes turned to her, glinting like the edges of distant spears. "I failed them; my job was to look out for them and I _didn't_."

She stared at him for a long moment and then scowled, "I'm pretty sure you were in no condition to look after _yourself_ much less the lives of two other people," Pidge poked him in the arm, right above where the prosthetic met flesh. "When you landed on Earth you were half delirious and were in a _panic_ over an incoming invasion."

Pulling up slightly on the controls so that they weren't nose diving through the green planet's atmosphere, Shiro shook his head.

He was guilty and she knew it because she had felt that same soul crushing guilt from the time the Garrison told her about the so-called 'accident' to when the Lance and Hunk had caught her out on the rooftop. It was the type of guilt that was poisonous, that would eat the heart from the inside out.

Like _hell_ it was his fault. Like hell it was _hers_.

"You said it yourself—that you don't remember all that happened when you were a prisoner," Pidge hunkered down in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "For all you know, Matt and my father weren't even in the same place as you so there was no other option but to escape by yourself."

The pod jerked as they entered the atmosphere and Shiro tightened his grip to keep it steady. "You don't know that," he said quietly, the words barely heard over the roar of the gases that tried to burn the metal keeping them safe.

"But I know _you_ , Shiro," Pidge turned away from him to stare over the dashboard. "I know that you helped my brother when others would stay away simply because he was different. I know that you were chosen by my father to pilot the mission for a reason," She closed her eyes and breathed in the filtered, recycled oxygen. Funny how life worked that way—people across the universe being fundamentally different and, yet, still needing the same, basic needs.

"I know that you would try to protect them even if it meant giving your own life in the process."

They entered a cloud and the windows were covered in white for a split moment, enough time for the low hum of the pod to fill both of their minds and gently encourage the thoughts blooming there. Reaching into her pocket, Pidge curled her hand around the heavy keychain that was there.

oOo

Trust was a bitter, frail thing. Trust, unlike hope, could be broken in seconds, in a handshake, a firm word, a cold look. Trust, Katie knew, was not something she could ever apply to Garrison Galaxy.

The feeds of the Kerberos Mission were carefully wiped, carefully doctored, the probes found nothing, files said, no evidence of a crash, of life, of scientific equipment and the pictures showed a similar story. There was simply nothing on Pluto's moon.

But there was a spot out of alignment. The surface twisted in one picture and was flat in the next. A star that didn't belong was on the horizon, the same crater taken from one place and stamped on the next without any changes to the form or shape.

Trust, Katie would scoff. Trust and faith could only take you so far when the people around you lied so blatantly to your face.

At night she would pull the pictures stolen from the Garrison up on her computer, clutch at the Superman keychain, and settle for hope instead.

oOo

This story is based off of Jakehercydraws' Altean!Pidge au which can be found on Tumblr. I'll update it gradually but this is just a place to put it and decide whether or not to keep writing posting my writing in the Voltron fandom.

Thank you for reading, please review if you liked (or even if you didn't).


	2. Green is the Colour of Respect

A Stranger In A Familiar Land

Chapter Two

Green is the Colour of Respect

* * *

No matter how dark it seems. There's always a way.

Superman, _All-Star Superman_

oOo

Why do all dreamers share visions of flight? Is it the longing to be free of the meat and bone and dirt of real life? Do we tap a shared memory of some lost history when we could soar at will? Or is it simply base jealousy that propels the mind into the clouds?

For how could anything that flies be burdened by sorrow or want? How could anything that dances with the wind stay sill long enough to hurt?

What would one give to find out?

What would someone give to _fly_?

oOo

The Green World was peaceful—not in the way it was on Earth when the rain was falling and people settled down inside with tea or coffee and a nice book, no, this world was bundling with energy of the trees, the creatures wandering about in the undergrowth, and the simple fact that there was no worries. If time was undocumented on Earth and people went about their business not caring what day of the week it was or if holidays were coming soon, that was what this world felt like.

Pidge grinned at the small creatures waving at her and Shiro from the banks of the river, taking in the way they clambered over the roots and branches of trees to look at these two new alien beings on their planet. It was such a newfound innocence, one made from curiosity but no fear.

Her eyes roamed back to the sloth creature rowing the small canoe and met Shiro's gaze in-between. He was smiling at her, a fond, kind little smile and Pidge flushed and turned away, folding her hands in her lap and watching the water beneath them. There were small things that could have been considered fish, but they had fin-like legs and skin instead of scales.

She hesitated before dipping her fingers into the current and they came up to take a look. Their mouths were soft against her skin, nuzzling like sniffing dogs before pulling away. Pidge couldn't, and didn't, stop the smile that spread across her face. The river picked up speed as they rounded a bend and the Altean let the rest of her hand dip below the surface under water came up to her wrist, lapping playfully at her inner arm.

There was a carving on the outcrop of rocks just ahead, one that looked like those lions in the dessert back on Earth. Something large moved slowly through the trees, not caring about it's way or the world around it, simply just moving because it was alive.

Pidge smiled at the small yellow creatures on the beach. "I like it here," she said quietly to herself, not quite realizing that she had said it aloud.

"Me too," Shiro murmured.

She turned to glance back at him and the pilot was watching the passing trees, stress lines softening on his face, the bags under his eyes no longer as prominent as they had been just a few hours ago when they first left Earth. This planet was good for him, Pidge mused. This planet was good for _her_. Reaching up, she removed the aviator hat, leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and soaked in the sunlight as if she was one of the plants on the shore.

oOo

When they first landed on Earth, Vidya didn't know why she suddenly had to take on a new name, why her father told her quietly that no, no he was Sam Holt now, not Holger. Meir was Matt, and she was Katie.

"Papa," she sat on his knee, playing with an odd, rectangular thing that made beeps and chirrups if she poked certain buttons and lit up when the wheels rolled. It was too noisy, too bright. She didn't like it."Papa," Vidya's brown, honey eyes were wide when she looked up at him, making sure she got her father's attention before continuing, "I want to go _home_."

Strong arms wrapped tightly around her and Vidya dropped the strange toy and pressed her cheek against his odd, scratchy shirt. She liked the other one more. The one he had been wearing when she opened her eyes after the Long Sleep.

"I know," Sam Holt whispered and his chest shook underneath her, something wet was starting to weigh down her hair and one of her pointed ears twitched as his breath tickled the skin, "I do too."

oOo

 _"I bet my bottom dollar that you're going to be a part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice."_

oOo

The Green Lion rumbled under Pidge's hands, the glow from the consol making off shapes and shadows across her face and something that she didn't know was missing fit in her chest, locking into her heart like melted wax oozing into every nook and crack, smoothing out the blemishes time had left behind in order to leave something beautiful and full behind.

It wasn't like being whole, wasn't like finding another half to her soul, but rather like sitting in the chair of a familiar place, of being wrapped up in a soft blanket on a cold evening and reading a book while the rain pattered against the window.

A makeshift feeling of home, even though Pidge knew she had never stepped foot in this ship before.

Not like this at least, not in any of her memories.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled on the controls and felt the great machine under her feet shift and respond.

And then she _pulled_.

Vines tore as metal pushed through them, greenery falling like rain as the Lion rose out from the forest with a roar that shook the planet. The trees leaned away like subjects bowing to a queen and Pidge felt them like she felt her Lion—and it was _her_ Lion. Deep, pulsing energy ran through every root and branch and leaf, beating in tune to her heart.

Welcoming her, accepting her.

 _The Guardian of the Forest._

Her hands tightened around the controls and she saw Shiro standing just below, watching her with a small smile and she grinned lopsidedly back even though he couldn't quite see it. The inside smelled like dirt and lemongrass but Pidge wasn't quite sure if she was imagining it or if the smell was actually there.

She breathed it in anyway as the Lion landed in front of Shiro, her hands following light nudges and unspoken instructions to lower the great head and open, letting the pilot on board to take him back to where he had first landed the pod.

"Well done," he said softly and Pidge grinned and brought the Lion over the river, keeping just enough distance to not disturb the plant and wildlife but just close enough that the water reflected the ship's underbelly.

Dropping Shiro off at the pod, she didn't quite wait until she's back in the sky, soaring over the canopy of trees and feeling the rush of dipping around the cliffs keeping the trees at bay, the wide, sharp rocks dotting the coastline, and finally pulled back when the white Altean ship soars past her, daring for a race.

Her hands ran along the controls like they were an old toy she had forgotten about and dug up after all these years. Pidge's heartbeat thrums in her pointed ears as the Lion shoots towards the sky and her laugh fills the cockpit of a warship that wasn't so alien after all. Her smile is broad and wide and real for the first time in what felt like months.

She felt more alive than she ever had.

She could _fly_.

oOo

"Hey. _Hey_. Katie, wake up," a hand was on her shoulder and she pushed it away sloppily, grumbling and trying to ignore the sound of her brother moving around in her room. He was shifting his weight back and forth, his clothing smelled of lavender, and the shirt that he was wearing was one that she had bought him because it was made of too soft to be real fabric.

"Go _away_ , Matt," she told him. They would have to get up early tomorrow morning for the trip to the station where her brother and father would be shot off into space and Katie actually wanted to enjoy the _day_ , not be a sleep deprived _mess_.

Something tickled her nose and she groaned, pulling the blanket up over her head and finally opening her eyes when it was tugged back down. " _What_?" She grumbled and shifted over as he shoved and pushed his way onto her bed like a cat that wouldn't take no for an answer. "It's—" craning her neck, Katie glanced over at the alarm clock on her desk where the neon blue numbers stared at her—"two in the morning."

"Stop being grumpy," Matt chuckled and pulled her close so her head was resting partially on his chest, ignoring her grumbles. "I just..." He went quiet and she felt his fingers tighten in the cotton of her tank top, his heart thudding beneath her ear. She almost didn't realize that he was shaking.

Almost.

Katie sighed softly, fondly, and reached for his hand, threading their fingers together. There was a creak somewhere in the house, the stairs shifting under the weight of the dessert heat finally being released from wood and the cold of the night settling in. Tracing the gold of her brother's markings as they wound up his arm and vanished under his shirt she mourned the lack of her own green ones but grinned slightly as he twitched away from ticklish fingers.

Sometime during their life on Earth, Matt had grown up, almost breeching the two hundred year mark. By the time he returned from Kerberos, Katie was sure her brother would have all of them.

"You silly goose," she murmured. "Everything's going to be fine; you'll look at boring samples of ice, stare at it for hours under a microscope, write about your findings, and then come home to tell the world that it's just _ice_ but in _space_."

He laughed and poked her in the ribs as she giggled. "You snot," Matt said fondly and finally relaxed beneath her. The sound of summer filtered in through the window—crickets singing their songs, an owl in the distance, the flutter of moth wings against the screen.

She had just about fallen asleep again when his lips brushed her forehead. "I love you," Matt murmured against her hair.

"Love you, too," Katie Holt murmured, the words garbled and soft, dreamlike in a sense, but no less sincere.

oOo

As the Blue and Yellow Lions headed towards the bow of the large, purple ship orbiting Arus, Pidge flew beneath the massive behemoth and hoped that, thinking they were the big fish in the sea, the Galra wouldn't have put any sensors on the bottom of their crafts.

It was wishful thinking that was primarily based upon ego and, for right now, it seemed to actually be true. No defences were aimed at the Green Lion, no ships coming to cut them off. Shiro's plan might actually work. That is, if they had taken the size of just what they were up against wasn't suddenly filling her screen.

The Galra ship was bigger than anything Pidge had ever seen. Easily twice the size of a sky scraper with the added bonus of having enough power to fuel Las Vegas for a couple of years. It was big, it was purple, and she wasn't quite sure how Keith was going to be able to track down his Lion through the maze that was the interior.

No alarms were raised, and the Lion landed on the belly of the ship with ease, lowering its head and releasing the Paladins into space. Pidge cut through the metal of the exterior, managing to get a wide enough circle to fit all of them through, and they simply floated to the nearest place that looked like it could be opened.

"Don't," she said, motioning Keith away from a strange looking pad in the wall. It looked like a repair hatch where the workers could come out to repair flaws. Breaking it not only would make it impossible to close, but would probably also alert everyone else on board that they were being invaded.

 _"Currently approaching Galra Ship, Pidge, what's your ETA?"_

"Fly just a little bit slower."

On the other end of the line, Lance grunted. _"Roger that."_

Keith snorted beside her and Pidge glanced over at him for a second before returning back to the consol. "What?"

"That wasn't very professional for a communication's officer."

"Sorry, _professor_ ," Pidge rolled her eyes and the hatch opened. The Red Paladin went through first, his hand on his bayard and checking every corner for soldiers or drones before motioning them forward.

Through there, they looked to be inside some strange generator room, with large violet lightning bolts buzzing to her left and some jagged, odd cylinder to the right. The platform she was standing on was clearly no place for normal workers as it was high off the ground and difficult to reach without the jetpacks on the paladin armour.

 _"Pidge, ETA?"_ Lance sounded a tiny bit more panicked and she glanced around to make sure no one was around before deactivating the mask that allowed her and the others to breathe out in space.

"We're in," she whispered and turned to Shiro, the only one out of all of them who had any idea about where the hallways could go. "Where to now?"

oOo

Katie Holt took the engineering class at the Garrison because it was interesting, if a little too easy. Earth technology wasn't too advanced and their math was easy enough to remember and use if just for constructing and building with the materials the humans did have.

Pidge Gunderson took engineering because it was an elective to fit into a not-so-full schedule, something that was interesting, but not the focus with an accepted excuse of if the engineer was out of commission, having a little bit of knowledge about the inner tech of a craft was better than nothing at all.

That was the excuse, at least. She had been at her father's side helping the Garrison improve the ships and shuttles long before some of the commanding officers were out of high school. If there was one thing Katie Holt knew, it was the inner workings of space crafts.

On the other hand, sometimes it was hard to remember that Pidge Gunderson did not know why the ship rattled too much when hitting high altitude right before breaking the ozone layer or even how to fix that.

It was difficult, she realized after a while, to not make it seem like the work was too easy, to make the standard mistakes a communications officer would make compared to a, say, person training to be an engineer. That was the current reason as to why she was about five minutes late for breakfast. The night before she was too tired to carefully make 'mistakes' and woke up to a perfectly functional, A+ earning project that probably would have gotten a few raised eyebrows and a couple questions of whether or not someone did her project for her.

Seeing that she was already on rocky ground as it was with the aviator hat, Pidge fixed the wires around, made the interior a tiny bit sloppier, and added a few amateur mistakes before deciding it was now finished.

Five minutes late to breakfast wasn't too bad, though. Could be worse. Could be five minutes late for class.

"—What we're saying is that you need to stop jeopardizing this project."

Pidge stumbled to a stop, ears twitching under the aviator hat as she picked up the words from a couple of hallways away. She made a face at the tone in the guy's voice—the snarky, better-than-thou that made her want to punch a wall when it was directed at her. What did the internet call it? Mansplaining? Gross.

"We don't need you to keep messing with the wiring, especially if you're just going to get it wrong."

Just an argument then. Honestly, people were so competitive. If they truly thought their group member was doing poorly they would give them the ways to help them learn instead of just belittling them like this. Three people were always better than two and two were always better than one.

Sighing, Pidge started walking again, determined to at least get something to eat before her morning classes.

"I was trying to fix your mistakes! You connected the control panel to the second engine rather than the first—"

She _knew_ that voice. Pidge turned on her heel, heading towards the conversation with a frown on her face. What was _Hunk_ doing outside of the commons? The guy was on time for everything and probably woke up at the crack of dawn to not be late for the day even _starting_.

Walking around a corner, she saw Hunk with his back to the wall, fidgeting with his fingers and looking down at the two shorter cadets. One, a boy, had his arms crossed over his chest and a large scowl on his face, the other was a girl with her dark hair tied back in a bun, wire frame glasses sitting low on her nose. The look she was going for was probably disdain. Pidge thought she looked more like she had swallowed a sour candy.

Squaring her shoulders, Pidge walked up to the group, plastered a smile that was way too bright for her and the morning, and stepped between Hunk and his group mates. "Good morning!" She greeted cheerfully and the words almost felt like poison on her tongue, "Hope you don't mind if I borrow Hunk for a moment, have to ask him a few questions before class, you know?"

They mumbled something and turned away, glowering at Pidge's back when they thought she wouldn't notice even as she dragged the tall boy away from the hallway and towards the commons, cursing at the time on her watch. Ten minutes left for breakfast. Damn people and their stupid egos.

Grabbing the straps of her backpack, Pidge just about stomped to the commons, Hunk trailing like a puppy after her.

"Uh, Pidge?"

"What?" She grumbled, checking her watch again. There was probably enough time to get an omelette if the line was short.

"Did you actually have a question for me?"

Looking back at the engineer, Pidge frowned. "Not really," she admitted, "except why you were in the hallway and not in the commons."

Hunk blinked a couple of times. She blinked back at him. "Thanks," he said after a couple of seconds. "I-I mean for, well." He shrugged and motioned backwards to the hallway they had just left.

"Yeah, well, knowing you they were the ones in the wrong and you were actually right," Pidge pushed open the door to the commons and winced at the sudden barrage of noise. "I've seen your work; it's practically flawless." Very close to almost flawless. The guy was a genius when he wasn't throwing up in cockpits. Plus, he was good enough to not only be tasked with the in-flight engineers but also be top of his class.

That's not luck, it's skill. It was a shame grumpy people couldn't see past the physical exterior to his big brain and his even bigger heart. She handed him a plate without looking back at him and glared at the kid who had tried to scoot himself in front of her in line. He backtracked real fast, hands in the air and sheepishly getting behind Hunk.

The cups of yogurt were on top of the glass covering the food and Pidge muttered something unkind under her breath about tall people and moved on.

Something flashed out of the corner of her eye as she reached for the eggs and a cup hovered in front of her face. She lurched back, staring at the yogurt for a moment before taking it out of Hunk's hand. "Thank you," the small teen said, looking up at the engineer.

He gave her a broad smile that reminded her of daisies in the spring.

oOo

Eyes followed the three Paladins. Sad eyes, terrified eyes, and eyes that were begging to be saved. They belonged to old ghosts, memories of blood and agony etched into the walls of the ship like physical manifestations of the past. Pidge tried to ignore them, turning around only occasionally when she felt a wisp against her back only to see nothing but the empty hallways.

Humans called them ghosts but they were far more than simple apparitions that haunted a place. Memories would be better, physical manifestations of horrible things was even better, but there was no earthly word to describe just what, exactly, haunted the Galra ship. Pidge shivered as one passed by her, as another wailed somewhere far away.

The aviator hat had been left in the Castle after she had pulled the helmet on and her fingers brushed against the place the flaps had been, thinking to pull them down over her ears to block out the noise only to brush the metal of the armour. Instead she reached down, finding the small compartment on her thigh, and grabbed the small Superman keychain.

The edges could almost be felt, but she wasn't quite sure if that was because the steel could poke through the armour or phantom sensations from holding it in the past.

"Shiro?"

She looked up when Keith spoke and turned to look at the Black Paladin. He was staring down the hallway, his eyes wide and face pale. "I've been here before," Shiro said in a voice that was part whisper, part musing. Like he was still stuck in whatever memory had come back to him, watching it play out as if he was there once more. "After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here."

"So that means," Pidge said, her shoulders shaking, "that means that everyone else on the crew, they could be here?"

Shiro turned and looked down at her, his eyes, behind the protective glass of the helmet, burned with an emotion she couldn't quite describe. "Pidge," he said softly, trailing off. The Black Paladin glanced back at Keith, but the teenager simply watched him, his face a blank slate, letting the pilot make this decision for himself.

Finally, Shiro took in a deep breath and stared down at the Green Paladin. "There's no time. We won't be able to find the prisoners and the Red Lion without getting caught."

Her shoulders slumped and tears were starting to well in her eyes before a quiet, deep seated rage burned within her chest. It was the same type of rage when she found out the Garrison was lying, the same kind when she ever heard the Kerberos mission mentioned. "There's never any time for them, is there? There's _never_ —" Her hands clentched into fists and she felt the keychain burn against her palm, a reminder of who she was. Of what her family were to the people of Earth.

Nothing but _aliens_.

Their group started walking again and Pidge's entire body was shaking. "I bet we'd go look for them if we were _human_ ," she muttered bitterly under her breath, the words shockingly loud in the empty hallway.

"Pidge!" Keith spun around, his eyes wide.

Shiro looked like someone had punched him in the gun, his eyes unbearably sad, like a puppy that had just gotten kicked. She refused to feel bad about her words, she _refused_. "Pidge," the Back Paladin was almost begging. "Pidge, you _know_ that's not—"

Years of being looked down upon, years of scornful gazes, of words whispered behind her back. Humans didn't care about what they didn't understand, she knew that. If it didn't effect them, they had a hard time having empathy for it.

And the past seven months, the past year of being scorned, of excuses, all that anger finally exploded.

"We've had to look after ourselves ever since we landed on earth!" Pidge motioned in what could have been the Planet's general direction, flinging her hand wide with a snarl. "I don't know why I was expecting anything different, I mean, _nobody_ cares!" Her voice broke and she took a breath that shook her entire body. "Nobody has ever _cared_!"

Shiro opened his mouth as if to say something and there was an odd look on Keith's face—something torn, something broken, something almost close to understanding. But how could he understand? How could _anyone_ understand?

Pidge jerked away from them, her breathing heavy and forced. Her eyes trailed over the walls of the Galra ship, her ears caught the whispers of memories. Then she squared her shoulders, straightened her back, and glared at the other two Paladins. "So if you won't help me then I'll go find them _myself_!"

She turned and ran.

"No, wait!" Lurching forward, Shiro tried to grab her, but his fingers skimmed the edge of the jetpack. "Pidge!" he yelled after her, no longer caring for any of the soldiers that could be nearby.

"PIDGE!"

oOo

"How do you do it?" Katie looked up at the poster on her wall; a simple black one with a familiar shield with an S. She sat on her bed, legs folded, her hands in her lap, face damp from tears that hadn't quite dried yet. "How do you live knowing that you're so different from everyone around you?"

There was no answer; it was just a poster after all, so she wiped her face, took a shower, and got herself a bowl of pineapple before heading back upstairs. On her bed there was a folded piece of paper and she set the fruit down next to the computer, sat down on the mattress, and opened it.

 _Jonathan Kent taught me that the strong have to stand up for the weak and that bullies don't like being bullied back._

 _He taught me that a good heart is worth more than all the money in the bank. He taught me about life and death. He taught me that the measure of a man lies not in what he says but what he does._

 _And he showed me by example how to be tough and how to be kind and how to dream of a better world._

* * *

I'm not used to people very rarely reviewing. Is that just a Voltron fandom thing? It seems like a Voltron thing. Thank you for those who have reviewed, I appreciate it!

Anyway, thanks for reading; just one installment left to go.


	3. Green is the Colour of Immortality

A Stranger In A Familiar Land

Chapter Three

Green is the Colour of Immortality

"Mom, if you could see anything, what would you do?"

"Learn to close my eyes."

oOo

It had been Matt who had come home with the dog. A puppy that easily fit into his arms with ears too large for her head, a tail that never stopped wagging, and fur that was white enough to disappear into vanilla ice cream. Katie and her brother never expected to be able to keep her, so they named the dog Krypto as a joke and brought her home to their parents.

A Found sign was placed up, their number on the bottom, but no one came around to claim the puppy, and, refusing to take her to a shelter, Krypto became the fourth official member of the Holt family. Tasked with her health, training, and safety, Katie and Matt scoured the internet and pet stores for advice, buying her food, toys, a blue collar that made everyone think she was a boy, and a Superman dog tag with her name, their address, and their dad's phone number on it.

They took her to the drug store, to their dad's work, to the store, to the park. Everywhere that Matt and Katie went, Krypto was close behind with her pink tongue hanging, fluffy tail wagging.

Until, one day, she wasn't.

Fourteen years was the expected lifespan of a White Shepherd. Krypto lived closer to twenty, had become blind in her left eye, couldn't quite hear as well as she used to, but still greeted little Katie and Matt with a doggy smile and a wag of her tail.

Until the arthritis became too much. Until her body simply gave out on her and the vet shook her head at Sam Holt one afternoon and they just _knew_.

Matt and Katie Holt tasted Earth's mortality, they saw the short life spans, the fact that humans could only live eighty to one hundred years, that they became middle aged before Alteans were even out of childhood. Humanity was so fragile and so beautiful at the same time, but the siblings pulled themselves away from their friends, from the people they had met at the drug store, at the park, and Sam decided it was time to move again.

He found a quiet place in the mountains, a house looking over a wide valley with a clear view of the sky from the porch. It had enough breathing space for Katie and Matt; they could run through the woods without fear of being caught, freeing themselves from the hats and makeup after so many years of wearing them.

Sam found a job at the observatory a couple of miles beyond the mountain pass. It was a forty minute drive, but he said that the view in the mornings was worth it with the sun rising over the peaks and the trees turning purple under the rays. He came home with stories of the people he worked with—a man who was taller than any Altean who looked like a bear but could only talk about how well his garden was doing, a woman who had tattoos of planets and constellations on her arms, a teenager who never stopped asking questions about how the technology worked and often got in a little trouble taking things apart to figure out how to put them back together again.

Just before summer started to cool down into autumn, the entire Holt family went on a five day camping trip into the mountains for some 'fresh air'.

When they came back, an aquarium had been installed into the wall overlooking the dining room. Someone had clearly put a lot of time in it; adding little reefs and hiding places for the three Koi lazily swimming around, exploring their environment. They were colourful and bright and small, but Matt and Katie pressed their noses against the glass to watch them.

Krypto the White Shepherd had died at twenty years of age. She was beloved for much of her short life and loved the kids that had taken care of her with all her might. The Koi couldn't quite follow Matt and Katie places, they didn't sleep in their beds or try to steal their eggs when they weren't looking.

But they were still there when Matt went off to Kerberos.

And maybe, just _maybe_ , they'll be there when he got back.

oOo

There was a torture on Earth called _pressing_ which was used when people accused of witchcraft refused to plead either guilty or not guilty. Because of the system in place at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried so the justice system decided to 'push' the answer out of them by laying a wooden board across their naked body and then placing stone after stone upon them. The weight would lead to suffocation, but only after an intense amount of pain for a couple of days.

Giles Corey, charged with witchcraft along with his wife, had refused to plead, well, anything. As per American law at the time, he was brought out to a pit in the open field besides the jail, laid out on the ground, and had rock upon rock placed upon him. Corey did not cry out, let alone make any sort of plea towards either side of guiltiness.

The three times that he was asked, however, Corey broke his silence to simply demand "more weight". They were his last words before he died.

 _More weight_.

Shiro caught up to Pidge before she could make it past the second hallway. She had taken too long pausing at the crossroads, trying to listen for any sign that she was even close to the cellblock only to come up with nothing. The ship was too big to properly find her way around, and the Black Paladin had to simply follow the tracker in her armour to find her.

"Pidge," He said and she turned away, picking a direction at random, not quite looking at him just yet. It wasn't his fault, it wasn't even _him_ , she knew. But that bitterness stung and her losses hurt just a bit too much until they piled on like one rock after another.

 _Hatred_ , four rocks. _Lies_ , twenty rocks. _Side eyed glances_ , thirteen.

 _More weight_ , she thought bitterly.

Shiro grabbed her elbow, stopping her from fully pulling away. "Pidge, I didn't mean it like that."

"Where's Keith?" She looked past his arm to the empty hallway behind him, no Red Paladin in sight, and managed to avoid looking the older teenager in the face so he wouldn't see the redness to her eyes.

"I sent him to find the Red Lion but that's... that's not what's important. _Pidge_ ," Shiro urged softly and she finally looked up at him, "I'm _sorry_."

She was shaking, eyes blurring just slightly around the edges as that itchy feeling before they were about to cry returned. The visor of the helmet made it difficult to reach under and rub stubbornly at her eyelids.

Shiro was a _good_ person; he and Matt had been close even before the Kerberos mission. Her father had even invited him over for dinner a couple of times.

"I should have thought about what I said, about what this entire mission means to _you_ ," Shiro took in a deep breath and placed both hands on her shoulders, making sure that she met his gaze. "The people of Earth... we fear what we don't understand. Hell, we can barely accept each other," This time it was the Black Paladin who looked away, "I can't even _imagine_ what it was like for you and your family, how hard it was."

Pidge watched him with wide eyes, her bottom lip trembling, entire body tense like a lifeguard noticing a five year old climbing the ladder to the diving board.

"You've come so far to look for them and we haven't really helped you, have we?"

The tears finally spilled over and Pidge tried to breathe around a gasping sob that ripped through her throat. She curled in on herself, wrapping her arms around her torso and ducking her head. Taking a step away from Shiro, her back hit the wall with a small _clang_ and she almost slid down it to the floor had his arms not circled around her, letting the Altean curl into herself but pulling her body close anyway to lean into him if she needed it.

And Pidge needed it.

The muscles of her neck hurt, her heart felt too big for her chest, pounding against her ribcage, and her mouth was dry, but she _needed_ it. Her head rose up so she could bury her face into his chest, arms unwrapping to curl around him instead. Each tear was her confession as she shuddered and gasped against Shiro, his arms wrapped protectively around her back. Pidge couldn't remember the last time she hugged someone. _Really_ hugged someone.

Bitterly and with a small amount of sarcastic humour, she wondered if they had time for _this_.

It turned out that they had, but just barely.

Shiro let her pull away in the end, his broad hands dwarfing her shoulders as he held her still enough for their eyes to meet. "I'm sorry," he said again and she reached up, underneath the helmet, to wipe at her face.

"It's okay," She said—perhaps the biggest lie of all. But it's one of the things everyone does. They say something like 'it's okay' not because it is, in fact, okay, but because they're hoping these words will somehow make it okay.

Even though they never, ever do.

Together, they turned to go find the prisoners on the ship.

 _More weight_.

oOo

It was harder and harder to hide themselves from the humans the older they grew. Not because of the longer lifespan—though Katie and Matt looking the same over ten or so years while the rest of their classmates aged was definitely one of the harder ones—but because of how Earth's technology grew. The easiest way to take up a new identity was to steal those who were dead and it was _wrong_.

But they had to.

Katie and Matt could hear her parents arguing some nights and the louder those arguments grew, the closer they came to moving away again. Farmlands, cities, mountains, beaches, and even a boat house came and went. New countries where they had to learn the languages had even passed by.

And they were tired.

That's how the Garrison caught them.

It was an accident in their new home; Katie was setting up the pond in the back that would be the new home for the koi when Matt splashed her with water and she took off the hat to wipe her face with a towel. A neighbour boy had peeked over the fence, curious about the new kids next door, and saw. That boy did what every young boy would do—he turned, he ran, and he told. In this case, it was his teenaged sister who had access to all those social media websites.

It wasn't long before a video was uploaded and liked and shared and reblogged.

 _My neighbours are elves!_ Was the cute, little title.

It wasn't so cute when the officers came to the door.

oOo

Katie Holt lifted three times her weight before a crowd of gaping scientists. Her arms barely shook under the weights, hair tied back into a loose ponytail as she stood absolutely still while wires recorded the pumping of her heart and the intake of her lungs. Barely five feet tall and she could lift more than the average adult human male without breaking a sweat.

The Garrison scientists murmured and whispered, scribbling out data on their pads. Officers watched her with arms crossed over their chests. She was strong, she knew that. Strong because of her species and where they had come from, but weak from their travels on Earth. Without the need for lifting, pulling, or hoisting, Katie's body wasn't as strong as it could be.

That didn't mean she had to tell them that, however.

People feared what they did not understand, and they didn't understand the Alteans at all.

After her 'session' Katie was free to do what she liked whether that be a moderated meal, supplied schooling, or chosen entertainment. Even her walk back 'home' was monitored and she wanted to tell them that she could hear each of their heart beats, that Altean Children's senses were stronger to hear danger and keep them safe from the dangers of their home planet.

Like a baby rattlesnake whose venom was more potent as a defence because they had no rattle. Too young to change her form, Katie practiced listening instead. She tracked the breathing of the guards that walked around the compound, found the shuffled footsteps of people in the school, and followed the flight of a helicopter from the helipad to someplace far away.

She learned how to recognize people by the sound of their car engines.

Then, Kate Holt heard about her father and brother, how they crashed and were gone, lost out in space.

All she could hear after that was the trembling heartbeat of a man who was lying.

oOo

The little pyramid droid beeped helpfully as they ran down the hallways. Pidge watched it out of the corner of her eye, making sure that the lights on the edges stayed Altean blue rather than transitioning back to purple. She didn't call it Krypto after the dog Matt and her had loved and lost, but _Rover_ instead after humanity's attempts to explore Mars and the rest of deep space.

It circled her like that old white shepherd used to and she fought the urge to pat it.

"This way," Shiro urged and Pidge shook the thoughts out of her head and followed, their footsteps echoing loudly as they tried— _tried_ —to sneak down the corridor and came to another hallway that ended theirs, creating a place was darker than the others, the lights on the wall few and far between leaving just a dim glow to light their path. It was enough, though, to see.

Doors with a thin, rectangular window at the Black Paladin's eye height lined the next hallway.

Something shuffled; a quiet sound that was there and gone in an instant, lost within the rumbling of the ship that it was nothing more than background noise.

Pidge froze, foot stopping mid air as she listened.

"What is it?"

She gritted her teeth, not being able to clearly hear whatever it was through her helmet so, despite Shiro's protests, Pidge pulled it off and frowned, closing her eyes. Left, then right, then left again she tilted her head, shifting the position of her ears. The lights didn't buzz, not like they did on Earth, but she was left sorting through other noises—the breathing of human lungs and beating of a human heart, the groaning of metal as it went through temperature changes, the whirling of Rover's machinery.

A door opened and closed in the distance.

"Pidge?"

"Shhh," she murmured.

Her ear twitched.

The shuffle came again, followed by a soft groan and Pidge's eyes snapped open as she spun on her heel, hand pointing down the corridor like a hound on a chase. "There," she said, "that way."

Shiro didn't ask if she was sure, something the Green Paladin was incredibly grateful about, and they both headed towards the door she had pointed to. It looked like all the others—dark, blank, with no sign that there was anything inside except for the occasional shuffling about. Rover tweeted after them and Pidge frowned.

"Open up," she told the droid and it twittered at the order than swooped in towards the door, doing something to the control panel that forced the whole thing to beep and groan as the motors worked to raise it up.

"Excellent, Pidge," Shiro smiled at her and she grinned back—all teeth and nervous energy as the door rose high enough that she could slip in underneath it.

"Dad?"

But neither Sam nor Matt Holt were in the group of aliens currently cowering within the cell. The disappointment that shot through Pidge was less of a lightning bolt and more like a snowball that had hit her in the back of the neck and was melting down her spine. She pulled her helmet back over her head to hide the look upon her face from everyone else, clearing away the frown and shimmering eyes until her expression had hardened.

"Don't be afraid," Shiro said behind her, his voice strong and steady so Pidge latched on to that and took a deep breath, "we're here to help you escape."

"It's you... it's you, the Champion," a grey alien with four arms spoke up and Pidge turned away, his voice droning on like a fly buzzing around her head, trying to get through her own thoughts so she ignored his words and focused on something else. "

Rover was hovering back and forth like a pacing watchdog so the Green Paladin didn't quite hear Shiro's response. A door opened down the hallway, feet swarming and vibrating up through the metal. Pidge turned back to the Black Paladin and the prisoners. "We don't have much time," she said, sending a butchered repeat of his words from earlier back at him, "let's get to the escape pods."

There was nothing for her here.

oOo

"Show them possibilities," Katie heard her father say once, "But never choose their path. They must advance on their own, find their own way, make their own mistakes." His eyes were shining with some emotion she couldn't quite identify at the time. "Help them conquer their own fears and hatreds, but let them create their own history."

Planet Earth was not Altea. Earth recovered from mistakes faster without the long memories that haunted the Alteans.

Katie watched as commanders came and went. The world became routine so she and Matt found ways to break it.

But she remembered before, when they travelled and were free.

That was never something she every, truly, forgot.

oOo

The Green Lion groaned underneath her, trembling from the force of the ray from the Galra ship currently pulling them up into the sky. Pidge gripped the steering bars and gritted her teeth, unable to move the ship beneath her and yet hearing—no, _feeling_ —it it fight back. Above her was soldiers of the empire that destroyed her people, her home world. Beneath her was Allura and the Castle; the remains of planet Altea.

"We have to fight," She hissed to the metal and the Lion snarled in agreement both in the engines and her head. Inside her helmet, she could hear the others yelling, screaming, apologizing, and thanking. "It can't end here!"

The Superman keychain burned against her leg and Pidge reached down to pull it out of the pocket, hanging it up on the consol in front of her. That red, blue, and yellow shield that had been with her for so long. It turned, and the green light from inside the lion made the words engraved into the metal shine.

 _You're much stronger than you think you are. Trust me._

A different voice rose up from the depths of her memory and Matt stood on his bed, a foam sword in his hand, red blanket tied around his neck like a cape, holding her off with careful pushes and taps as she tried to storm his own, imaginary castle.

" _Only the weak succumb to brutality!"_ He cried and wrestled her, giggling and laughing, to the floor. His wiggling fingers roamed up her ribs and sent her retreating with a squeal, bumping back against his desk and sending Superman comics falling off the edge.

 _Truth, Justice, and Liberty._

Above her, the Galra ship charged its canon.

Pidge gripped the handles and bared her teeth. " _NO!_ " She roared and the sentiment was echoed by her Lion. The word tore through everyone's speakers from Keith and Lance and Hunk down to Allura and Coran. "Until my dream of a world where dignity, honour, and justice becomes the reality we all share," The Green Paladin quoted to herself, the words whispered through all their headsets as she pulled at the controls, twisted dials, tugged on levers, "I'll never stop fighting. _Ever._ "

Her own heartbeat thundered in her ears and the Green Lion's tail whipped back and forth like a snake.

Shiro's voice cut through Pidge's thoughts and fury and she focused on him, the head, the leader, "We can do this!" He cried and both her and her Lion stilled to listen. "We have to believe in ourselves! We _can't_ give up; we're the universe's only hope."

Beneath her, around her, came a wild purr that rumbled through her chest.

"Everyone is relying on us, we can't fail!"

Her brother, her father, still out there somewhere in the universe. She was breathing down their necks, hot on a trail she thought would have gone cold long ago.

"We _won't_ fail!"

Pidge watched the light glint off the edges of the shield and then turned her gaze to the screens in front of her.

"If we work together, we'll win together!"

It wasn't the best, nor the most inspirational, but that Superman keychain swung dangerously as Pidge cried out her own 'Yeah!' with the others and her Lion raised its head to roar. With a surge of power, they broke free of the beam and the Green Paladin lurched in her seat as they were suddenly able to move. Her hands worked with the aid of the beast in her head, guiding her fingers and movements to join to the left of the Black Lion.

An arm, Pidge realized. She and Keith were an arm of Voltron. They both worked in tandem to push the cannon so the blast it had been charging flew by the Castle and struck the mountains harmlessly. They tore the ship apart; ripping away metal and weapons, blasting through wires and machinery until the Galra were forced to flee from the exploding carcass they left behind.

oOo

Pidge leaned over her knees, breathing in carefully through her mouth, blinking away the tiredness that had settled on her mind. It was exhausting, having her mind bonded with a war machine. She groaned softly and rubbed at her forehead, feeling a headache blooming just above her nose. Everyone else was talking around her and she fished for the glasses she didn't really need and carefully slid them over her ears.

The wind brushed them and she closed her eyes, revelling in being able to hear everything without a bundle of wool and leather in the way.

A heavy hand rested on her shoulder and Pidge glanced up to the warm, kind eyes of Shiro. "We'll never stop searching until we find your brother and father," he told her softly and her heart warmed at his words. She knew that, logically, he was younger than her in years, but that didn't stop her from being grateful, nor from looking up to him. "Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you."

She believed him. Out here, millions of light years away from the planet that had become her family's home, Pidge believed him.

That was just the kind of person Shiro was.

oOo

It would be months before she found another sign, a breadcrumb to jumpstart the trail.

Beta Traz; the prison of Slav.

Inside the control room, hooked up to thousands of Galra systems, one buzz for attention tore Pidge away from the prison escape she was stringing along to watch a video.

A door exploded, forcing the recording to fizzle before coming back online and Pidge watched rebels pull her brother from the cloud of smoke and debris, and Matt, who she hadn't seen in nearly two years, coughing into his arm. The pale purple lines on his cheeks gave him away, along with the unmistakable pointed ears and she stared—she couldn't help it.

All this time searching, _looking_ , and there it was; visual confirmation that he was still out there, still _alive_.

After all this time, hope hadn't failed her.

"Matt?" She breathed.

Lance shouted for her attention and Pidge turned back to him, but that video played again and again as she downloaded the information.

The Green Paladin held that hope in her hand until it _burned_.

 _I'm coming for you_ , she swore even as she flew out an open hanger door to the vacuum of space. _I promise._

oOo

"You're right when you say we all come out of high school thinking we're going to save the world. And sometimes we do. And sometimes — sometimes we don't. So you don't think about saving the world. You think about saving just one person. Because sometimes, that's enough. All I know is that we have to try."

 _Superman: Grounded_

The End


End file.
